Ponies for Hire sees Kirsty and her family are struggling to survive through farming on their croft. Her brother, Robbie has had enough of farming using Highland pony horsepower, and wants a tractor. If he can’t farm in an easier way, he’ll go off to sea. Kirsty of course is desperate for this not to happen. Her widowed mother starts to take in holiday makers to make enough money to pay for the tractor, and Kirsty, together with their first guest, Nick, start a small trekking operation with the rest of the community’s ponies, fortunately on their summer break from farming.
The Skye background lifts this pony story out of the ordinary, and the main characters of Nick and Kirsty are very well drawn.
Finding the book: Ponies for Hire was reprinted by Collins together with Joanna Cannan’s They Bought Her a Pony and Monica Edwards’ The Midnight Horse in 3 Great Pony Stories. Ponies for Hire is generally quite easy to find in this printing, but is becoming more expensive because of the Monica Edwards factor: as The Midnight Horse is becoming more scarce, prices of this printing have risen in recent years. Ponies for Hire as a standalone volume is not impossible to find, but it is a bit more expensive than many pony books.
Ponies for Hire
Collins, London, 1967, illus Sheila Rose
Harcourt, Brace & World, New York, 1967
Reprinted in Three Great Ponies Stories, Collins,
1971
Ponies for Hire sees Kirsty and her family are struggling to survive
through farming
on their croft. Her brother, Robbie has had enough
of farming using Highland pony
horsepower, and wants a tractor.
If he can’t farm in an easier way, he’ll go off
to sea. Kirsty of course
is desperate for this not to happen. Her widowed mother
starts to
take in holiday makers to make enough money to pay for the
tractor, and
Kirsty, together with their first guest, Nick, start a
small trekking operation with
the rest of the community’s ponies,
fortunately on their summer break from farming.
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